Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson spoke to the media on Monday about coming out of a bye week and preparing for North Texas, one of the best C-USA teams.
Nick Suss, Hattiesburg American

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Southern Miss running back Trivensky Mosley fights past a defender in a game against Jackson State at M.M. Roberts Stadium on Saturday, September 1, 2018. (Photo: Susan Broadbridge/Hattiesburg American)Buy Photo

HATTIESBURG — It took two weeks longer than expected, but Southern Miss will play its fifth game of 2018 on Saturday.

In most years, the five-game plateau isn't especially meaningful. Conference play has usually begun by that point and the season's halfway point is still a week away. But 2018 is a different kind of college football season. With the new NCAA rule permitting players to play in four games without forfeiting their right to a redshirt season, game five is becoming a crucial checkpoint for young players making decisions about their development, and for older players making choices about their futures.

For Southern Miss, these decisions will come down from coach Jay Hopson, who says the choice of whether or not to redshirt a player won't always be made based on what's best for the individual, but rather for the unit.

"Sometimes if it's not good for one guy but it's good for 97 guys, then you'll do what's best for the 97," Hopson said. "It's the team's best interest. I have to do what's best for Southern Miss."

At schools like Southern Miss, having true freshmen and less-experienced players available for four games is a blessing, especially on special teams. Whereas Power 5 schools tend to have the luxury of using top-rated recruits on special teams while they wait to start on offense or defense, Southern Miss needs to use talent wherever it can. Oftentimes that means burning a redshirt for a promising younger player for the sake of not using walk-on's or tiring out starters of punt and kickoff coverage teams.

That was the situation last season, at least. As defensive coordinator Tim Billings pointed out, the Golden Eagles started five seniors in the secondary last year but barely used any redshirts for its youngest defensive backs. That wasn't because the freshmen were rotating with the seniors. It's because Southern Miss needed those freshmen to play special teams.

That's what Hopson means when he says he's making decisions that benefit the team first. If a player wants to play more but he's not ready, Hopson has to be the one to break that news. If a player wants to save his eligibility for the future but the team needs him now, Hopson has to make that choice too.

This discussion is likely to come into play for guys like defensive backs J.J. Jones, Nicario Harper and Curry Benn, athletic freshmen who could use their speed and fresh legs to cover or block on punts and kickoffs. It's less likely to factor into the discussion for players like quarterback Tate Whatley, who was always expected to take a redshirt despite playing in the season opener, or running back Trivenskey Mosley, who is going to continue playing in the backfield rotation as long as he continues to produce.

Of course, the other factor relating to the new "redshirt rule" is the unintended consequence of veteran players transferring before the fifth game to retain a year of eligibility. Most notably, Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant made this choice after losing his starting job to freshman Trevor Lawrence. But Southern Miss presumably saw this happen as well, with senior running back T'Rod Daniels choosing a transfer path after being jumped by Mosley and redshirt freshman Steven Anderson on the depth chart.

Hopson said he didn't expect this consequence to reveal itself, but he's still in favor of the rule.

"It's something we're going to have to adjust with in football," Hopson said. "It's a rule where there's positives to the rule and we're going to adjust and move on and play the game the way the rules are designed for us to play. There are some benefits to the rules. As a football coach all you look at is the team. Whatever helps the team, that's what you have to do."